Swimming pools used for aquatic sports are usually built as a tank of water surrounded by a pool deck. Pools may be situated within a building or outdoors. One or more movable bridges, referred to as bulkheads, may be positioned to bridge across a short width of a pool. The bulkheads may be used to segment a pool such that the pool can be used for several events at the same time.
In a swimming competition, each swimmer is assigned a lane, typically defined by floating lane lines that segregate the swimmers. Bulkheads can be used to create different lengths of the lanes by positioning them at the desired distance from a pool end. Typical lane lengths are, for example, 25 yards, 25 meters, and 50 meters.
Existing systems that acquire times of athletes competing in aquatic sports include several components, such as touch pads, pushbuttons, relay judging platforms, start systems, and start lights. For example, a touch pad may be positioned in the water at the end of each lane and configured to generate timing signals when touched by a swimmer. Pushbuttons, which are also referred to as backup buttons, may be activated by timing officials when a swimmer finishes a race. Relay judging platforms may detect when the athlete leaves the starting block. A start system with loudspeakers may transmit commands and start signals. Start lights may be used to visually signal swim starts.
The timing components provided in known timing and scoring systems are typically connected to connection hubs on one or both ends of each lane. These hubs can include one or several connection points and can be positioned directly on the pool deck, on a starting block, or on a bulkhead. Adjacent swimming lanes, each having two ends and connection hubs at those two ends, form a course. The hubs of all lanes on one end of the course are connected together and into course connections, also referred to as wall plates.
Timing and scoring systems may be provided at a pool as an in-deck system, an on-deck system, or a combination thereof. An in-deck system includes hubs and course connections installed in the pool deck, walls, and, if present, bulkheads. An on-deck system is a non-permanent installation that includes wireless hubs and/or hubs laid out on cables on the deck.
Conventional systems include a control device, also referred to as a timer, having a processor that connects to the course connections and acquires the signals from the timing components. The acquired signals are processed by the control device to provide times and/or scores of the competition. The times and scores may be transmitted to various types of scoreboards, video boards, or any suitable mechanism for providing timing and scoring information.
Referring again to the hubs and course connections of an in-deck and on-deck system, consecutive hubs on one side of a course are electrically and logically connected at one end of the pool. For example, one end of the pool may include a hub for each lane and the course connections for these hubs in either the walls of the pool building (e.g., in-deck system) or the end of the cable harness (e.g., on-deck system). In the case of an in-deck system for an outdoor pool without walls, the course connections can alternatively be positioned in tombstones, monuments, parapets, or the like. There can be more than one course connection for one end.
A course defined for a swim race includes a near end and a far end. The near end is the end where the control device is located and plugged into the corresponding course connection. The far end is the end of the course opposite the near end. Starting blocks, often equipped with relay judging platforms that are mounted on the starting blocks, are typically placed at the near end. Touch pads and backup buttons are plugged into the near end hubs of each lane to time the finish of a race. In certain configurations, touch pads may also be plugged into the hubs at the far end to generate split times.
A pool may be configured to include one or more different courses. For example, a long course along the length of a 50 meter pool and a cross course across the 25 yards of the width of the pool. Further, one or several bulkheads may be used to create any suitable course length, with a few lengths such as 50 meters, 25 meters, and 25 yards being preferred by the swimming rules.
Existing in-deck systems use complex course connection setups to accommodate flexible course and end configurations. For example, each course connection typically includes connection parts corresponding with each end of the pool. The connection parts of each course connection are routed to the other course connections to allow either end of the pool to be designated as the near end. The timer devices typically include near and far end connectors for mating with connection parts of the course connection to define the near and far ends of a course. For example, when the near end connection of the control device is plugged into a connection part of a course connection that corresponds to a given end of the course, the selected end is defined as the near end. Similarly, the far end is defined when the far end connector of the timer is connected to the other connection part of the course connection.
To change a course configuration from, for example, a long course to a cross course, timer connection cables are unplugged from the long course connection and plugged into both parts of the cross course connection. The near and far ends of the course are defined by plugging the near and far timer connections into the selected connection parts of the course connection as described above.
Existing on-deck systems are set-up by laying out cable harnesses and plugging the harnesses into the corresponding near end and far end connectors of the control device. To change the course configuration, the cable harnesses are moved and again plugged into the corresponding near end and far end connectors of the control device.
In addition to the timing components discussed above, existing timing and scoring systems may include scoreboards, game clocks, shot clocks, and the like. Typically, a control device has a scoreboard data output that drives a scoreboard through scoreboard data connections. The scoreboard data connections are usually routed and positioned near each of the course connections such that the control device may connect to both of a scoreboard data connection and a course connection. The scoreboard data connections may include multiple connectors corresponding with different scoreboard configurations. Existing systems may also include separate data connections for diving scores, synchronized swimming scores, water polo scores, shot clocks, game clocks, and the like. The data is received by a control device that processes the scoring data into results that are presented on scoreboards via the separate data connections.
FIG. 1 is a plan view of an exemplary spatial arrangement of a pool 1 having a conventionally wired in-deck timing and scoring system, as is known in the art. Referring to FIG. 1, a pool 1 aligned north to south and having exemplary dimensions of 50 meters by 25 yards is shown with timing and scoring system components. The timing and scoring system components can include, for example, a control device 10, hubs 3, 5, 7, 9, course connections 11-15, 31, scoreboards, 16, 17, scoreboard data connections 18-21, 32, scoring data connections 35, 36, and moveable cables 33.
The pool 1 may include north 2 and south ends. The north end 2 of the pool 1 includes hubs 3. A bulkhead 4, currently set at the south end of the pool 1, includes corresponding hubs 5. The bulkhead 4 can be moved in the north-south direction to set a length for a swim race, such as 50 meters, 25 meters, or 25 yards, with, for example, the near end on the north side 2 and the far end on the south side. The bulkhead course has eight lanes, represented by the black lines ending in a “T” shape, which guide the swimmers. The pool 1 also includes east 6 and west 8 ends. In the exemplary arrangement of FIG. 1, eight of the twenty lanes, represented by the broken lines with T ends, have been equipped with timing hubs 7, 9 allowing for the timing of cross course races with a distance of 25 yards.
As configured in FIG. 1, the bulkhead 4 is set to 50 meters and is connected to its corresponding course connection 15 with a moveable cable 33. For shorter distances, such as 25 meters or 25 yards, the bulkhead 4 may be plugged into a mid-pool course connection 31 with the movable cable 33. The course connections 11-15, 31 include an input for hubs 3, 5, 7, 9 and an output to control device 10.
The control device 10, set up at the north-west corner of the pool for a bulkhead course (near end on the north side), is plugged into both parts of the north-western bulkhead course connection 11. The north end 2 may be defined as the near end by connecting the black connection from the black/white course connection 11 with the near end plug on the control device 10 and connecting the gray connection into the far end plug on the control device 10. To change the course configuration to the east-west cross course, the control device connection cables for timing may be unplugged from the bulkhead course connection 11 and plugged into the cross course connection 12.
The black/white scoreboard 16 on the south wall or the gray scoreboard 17 on the east wall may be selected by plugging into the respective black/white or gray scoreboard data connection 18 from the control device 10. In the example of FIG. 1, the control device 10 is connected to the gray scoreboard 17 by coupling to the gray part of the scoreboard data connection 18. Scoreboard data connections 19-21 and 32 are not used in the configuration illustrated in FIG. 1 but may be used to connect to either or both of scoreboards 16, 17. The scoring data connections 35, 36 may be connected to each other, similar to scoreboard data connections 18-21, 32. The scoring data connections 35, 36 may be used, for example, to allow two diving events to be controlled simultaneously by control device 10.
In summary, FIG. 1 illustrates the bulkhead hubs 3, 5 of each course end 2, 4 connected to the course connections 11, 14, 15, 31. The course connections 11, 14, 15, 31 each have two connector parts for the hubs 3, 5. The course connections 11, 14, 15, 31 are connected with both ends to each other, as symbolized by the gray and black connecting lines in the walls. The east-west short course ends 6, 8 with hubs 7, 9 are connected to the course connections 12, 13, which are also connected to each other on both ends in the walls. The scoreboards 16 and 17 are connected to the scoreboard data connections 18, 19, 20, 21 and 32. The scoreboard data connections 18, 19, 20, 21 and 32 are connected to each other in a similar fashion as the timing course connections, but the connections in the walls are omitted from FIG. 1 for clarity purposes.
Accordingly, to serve different setups for several sports in a current pool 1 having an existing timing and scoring system, a complex and expensive set of multiple, two-part course connections 11-15, 31, scoreboard data connections 18-21, 32, scoring data connections 35, 36, and time data connections are conventionally used. The set-up and configuration of these existing systems require careful connecting of multiple cables from the control device into the correct ends of the desired course and into multiple data connections, which is laborious and prone to user error. Additionally, any desired change of the configuration requires careful re-connecting of multiple cables.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.